Tales of Before
by Thats My Name
Summary: :Artemis was the only one who ever told them stories: How the new team learn about the original teams shenanigans.


_This was just a little idea i had. I guess i kind of picture Artemis being the kind of person to hold onto inside jokes and miss the way things were, so she'd find excuses to talk about. Set befoe Wally and Artemis retire._

_Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, or Young Justice. I just enjoy writing about them._

* * *

Jaime was annoyed. And bored. Unbelievably bored. He rolled his eyes over at Cassie and let out a sigh. "How long have they been going at it?" he asked.

Cassie glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and smirked. "I'd say about ten minutes now. Maybe almost fifteen."

"God, this was supposed to just be a demonstration."

Wondergirl jammed her elbow into Jaime's side playfully, though a little harder than intended. "What's the matter, Blue? Bored of watching our two fearless instructors attack each other on the floor?"

"You have to admit, hermano, it's getting a little out of hand," Jaime said, rubbing his shoulder and trying not to scowl, or grumble, or shout at Nightwing and Artemis who were locked in fierce combat on the sparring mat in front of them. It was called the sparring mat for a reason. You were supposed to spar on it. Not indulge in this silly, unnecessary and unprofessional excuse of a fight used as a way to experiment with creative trash talk.

"It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen _every_ time." Jaime continued, trying not to laugh at the desperate way Nightwing grabbed for his opponent as she easily danced out of his way. "Why do they always volunteer for these things anyway? I'm sure Wally would do just as good of a job."

Cassie laughed quietly as Nightwing shouted that Artemis was a 'dumb blonde haired wrench of a girl with awful grooming habits'. She shrugged and wiped away her smile as she glanced at the clock. "They claim that everyone else _cheats_ by using powers. Which is a huge bunch of baloney if you ask me."

Jaime scoffed as he watched Artemis dig her nails into Nightwing's arm to escape a headlock. Clawing was on the list of "Forbidden" maneuvers that was posted outside the weight room. _Everyone else is a cheater, my butt_, he thought. The whole team knew this was just a way to beat each other up. Like all best friends simply _love_ doing.

(It was either that, or a way to make money from that anonymous pool of cash that everyone knew was created by the infamous afriends.)

Artemis managed to flip Nightwing over her head and basically lay down on top of him, her arm pressing into his throat. She laughed and smirked down at him. "Feeling the Dis, kiddie?"

An almost exasperated sigh came from the young man on the floor and a mutter of _not this again_. Artemis pushed herself up slightly, her grin becoming smug and triumphant. As she stood, a foot wrapped around her ankle, making her trip forward and land flat on her stomach. Nightwing fell on top of her, a smile spreading across his own face.

"It's all aster from up here, 'Mis."

The blonde laughed from her position on the ground, underneath her opponent. "Of course it's asterous, you're sitting on top of _me_, genius."

"What?" Jaime asked, glancing at Cassie in confusion. Seeing her befuddlement as well, he raised an eyebrow at the two people who were supposed to be teaching him to fight.

Turning her head slightly towards the two, her chin smushed into wrinkles against the ground and Nightwing still straddling her, Artemis grinned at them. "When Robin here-"

"It's Nightwing, Arty."

"Sure, sure. We know that Robin, now be quiet and listen. Anyway, when Robin was a little, cute, adorable little boy who had an obvious crush on his gorgeous, older teammate-"

"That is in no way true!"

"Hush, Child. Let me finish. He used to think he was some creative little birdie who could disgrace the English language by twisting words and removing their prefixes and playing with the simple, grammatically incorrect roots."

Sighing, Nightwing covered Artemis' mouth with his hand. "I would like to use this brief interruption to remind you all that I was thirteen when this- EW! You licked me!"

Artemis snickered before continuing, as if uninterrupted. "He tortured us for years with words like whelmed, chalant, asterous," She looked up at him and gave a soft smile. "… and traught."

"Um, I'm still kinda confused…" Cassie said, hoping for more of an explanation.

She didn't receive one. "You should be," Artemis said brightly. "Now get off me before Wally walks in and carries you to the border of Canada. It took an inconvenient amount of time to find you last time."

….

Garfield wiped his hand across his face, trying to get some of the sweat off of his face. He shivered and glanced over at Artemis and Superboy. The two had somehow ended up in the water outside the pier, and Beast Boy was feeling sorry for them. They must be freezing.

They had just wrapped up a drug bust that was really a cover for the exchange of illegal weapons. Using illegal activity to cover other illegal activities was something that didn't make any sense to Gar. He was getting used to this team not ever making a lot of sense.

Artemis laughed, and made Beast Boy jerk to a stop in surprise. Sportsmaster had shown up at the end of this assignment, and even though he didn't know exactly why, he knew that the blonde was always in a bad mood when he crashed their missions.

That didn't seem to be the case tonight. She flipped her sopping wet hair over her shoulder and made her way over to Superboy. Fingering the collar of his black shirt where it had ripped slightly, she said, "This hasn't happened in a while, has it?"

Superboy brushed her hand away, scowling in a mix of surprise and annoyance. He isn't used to her being this cheery either.

"What are you talking about?" Beast Boy asked, looking up at the two. Artemis snickered as Conner muttered _nothing_ under his breath.

"Supes used to rip his shirt of every mission."

"It wasn't my fault," He said, glowering and slightly grinning at the same time, something he was surprisingly good at.

Artemis shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh. "Sure it wasn't. You just wanted M'gann to look at those gorgeous rock hard abs."

Conner was silent, staring at his feet as they started walking towards the bioship. Apparently, Artemis had momentarily forgotten her two friends weren't together anymore.

She continued as if nothing had happened, dropping back to walk beside Gar. "There was one time, was it Central? Or maybe it was that patrol we had in Star City. Anyway, we were filling in for some superhero who was busy, and it was a mostly quiet night, so me and Wally started making side bets that Superboy would lose his shirt, like always."

Superboy glanced over his shoulder at the two of them, his eyes looking impatient for Artemis to finish her storytelling. "You did it even though Batman had banned bets during assingments."

"Batman didn't mind," Artemis explained. "He only didn't want us doing it on under cover ops. This wasn't one of those, so we weren't technically breaking any rules. Anyway, Superboy found out, decided to ruin our fun, and let his shirt hang of his shoulder with one sleeve." She kicked Superboys heels. "You cost me twenty bucks doing that."

Superboy scoffed. "Like you even paid up. Don't think I didn't hear you two in the souvenir room."

Artemis blushed and turned away from Gar. "Was that really necessary, Supes? Like you were all so surprised when we got together."

"Yeah, we kind of were."

* * *

_Hope you liked. Artemis came out more perky than i wanted in the first part, and it was my first time writing the new team at all. Please review!_


End file.
